It's not necessarily the team that needs to figure things out . It's a few bad players that need to step up quickly . If Melo is still hesitating on open looks , not understanding where to be on D , unable to rebound ... it's not the team's fault ... it's his . If he doesn't start showing some improvement in those aspects ... the next guy up should get a shot . Clark should get his mins in about 5 more games if nothing changes . 25 games is way too long . Melo had the entire offseason and camp and preseason to mentally prepare himself for this role . I don't expect him to have perfected it by now ... but I do expect that he looks a little more engaged .
The weird thing is that he DID look hella engaged last night against the Lakers, he did a GREAT job rebounding against the Lakers. We need him to bring it every night against every team and I have to say I'm a bit worried with his personality history that he won't
Melo gives inconsistent effort and Green is a more athletic, better shooting Corey Brewer who runs around like a headless chicken often. Neither are optimal.
3 games in, people. *3* Seriously, some of you would be the worst GMs of all time because you knee-jerk after every. single. game.
Melo looks extremely slow out there. He moved like a 7-footer. I say play him like a traditional center. He still has a post game, right? And he's rebounding well. Let him be Capela's backup. Post him up on offense when Harden isn't playing. He can pop out and shoot a 3 once in a while. That's how we used DMo. He can play the DMo role.
This is the most reasonable post I've read. The Rockets aren't even trying to utilize Melo on offense. He's too talented to not give the ball too & let create. As soon as he gets in I'd give him a quick post up, then run a few sets for him. But one thing is clear, Melo isn't getting any shots with Harden on the court. CP is who needs to get him the ball
I'm not saying to cut Melo . But why did for the love of god did MDA have him closing ? It's one thing if green is chucking and shooting us out of the game ... but he was making his 3's this game . Furthermore , he's the more athletic and better defensive player . Melo MIGHT be a better rebounder , but Once again ... Melo hadn't been effective the entire game leading up to this . You're down ... you've gotta go on a run and play great D . I think it's an easy call to go with the hot hand who is not "having trouble adjusting "
melo body language is off too. he don't really look like he's going into this year to win a championship. he looks like he's just here to get his one last payday before he hangs it up for good.
Every time you give the ball to Melo you are also taking the ball out of harden or Paul's hands . Why does Melo need to create ? Why can't he hit the open 3's generated for him . We did give him some post up and other creation opportunities .... he couldn't convert. I get the idea that you want to get him into a rhythm etc ... but he's not good enough to sacrifice James or chris' creation in order to let him jack up long twos until he gets hot .... after all , it's no guarantee he stays hot . If CP3 ... one of the greatest Pg's of all time can adjust to not always having the ball in his hands ... then Melo has to too .
Green has been getting put in and out the game when he is doing his job. It seems that when green gets caught being late on a defensive assignment he is punished for it.
The early 2000's Pistons teams ran a post-up for Ben Wallace to start almost every game. Ben Wallace was by no means a talented offensive player but he was a defensive MONSTER and getting the ball and having the team give you a small nod of respect in the form of running an iso play for you does wonders psychologically for you to play harder in the other aspects of the game. Melo is by no means the defensive juggernaut that Ben Wallace was and I'm not comparing the 2 players, but, Melo is someone who has been catered to most of his career and has quite the ego. For his entire career, even last year in OKC playing alongside WB, he has been given the ball several times throughout the course of a game and been allowed to do his thing. We're seeing a lot of complacency and negative body language from Melo, and a part of me can't help but think that this lack of energy is at least partially due to his decreased amount of touches. Think about it this way, if you're playing pick-up ball and there's 2 guys on the team (who are really good) are handling the ball 90% of the time and all you really get to do on offense is stand around and hope you get a chance to shoot the ball, are you really going to try that hard in other parts of the game? I'm not saying to make Melo a focal point of our offense. I'm just saying to let the man have a few iso plays throughout the course of a game to keep him engaged.
Melo takes a lot of plays off and looks for the call. PJ is doing some of that too. They’re not Harden. Melo is a great rebounder when he wants to be. He’ll get his shots by being on the floor longer and he’ll stay on the floor longer if he’s engaged more and does more of the little things. It’s sad but even only 3 games in it seems like HE JUST DOESNT GET IT. AND HE MAY NEVER. Just like Dwight.
Seems like the same theory that got us Dwight Howard post ups multiple possessions a game. How'd that work out? We got better when we got rid of egos like Dwight and just let actual good creators like Harden/Paul dominate the ball. You dont' cater to egos, especially over the hill ones like Dwight or Melo. If they aren't part of the team then you cut them. That's it. The upside to them being engaged is not worth it.
Beautifully said. I was told all off-season and last year that we would have olympic Melo because of Chris Paul. I didn't really believe it although I had a little bit of hope in the preseason, but I'm back to not believing. Hope I'm wrong. If he isn't going to play defense, he at least needs to produce on the offensive end.
Melo doesn’t have a role player mindset or complimentary type game...he needs a lot of touches, but his offense isn’t good enough to warrant it his usage is even lower than the career low he had last year in OKC, and in OKC, he at least averaged 15 shots a night and still got a good amount of his patented long 2’s...here he’ll get 10-11 shots max and the inefficient shots that he loves to take are discouraged on top of all that, he plays no D and is washed...it’s hard for me to see this working out
Bingo. This was one of my biggest concerns with Melo and I have several. He is taking minutes and opportunities from more efficient players. There are plenty of other players I would rather have taking the shot attempts that Melo takes given his low efficiency and shooting %. It is simple math that everyone but the hardcore Melo apologists can see. He is just not a good fit especially for this Rockets team with the offense they run and the high goals and aspirations they have. If our off season acquisitions were quality we would have won this game today.
It wasn't Morey doing the thinking , it was Tilman not wanting to pay the tax , that's obvious. If Morey was doing the thinking , Ariza doesn't walk with bird rights - he just pays the tax. The only thing Ariza affected financially was how much tax was paid or not.
High IQ players make the adjustments as needed. Melo has never been a high IQ player. He makes dumb decisions on the floor and takes bad shots. Combined that with his physical decline, the writing is on the wall.
Yeah, so far i'm not going to disagree with this either, let's say at least we know Melo doesn't have a problem with the depth of the field in TC like Anderson, but Ryan probably had a better shot selection.
